Teachers' union fighting tests, evaluations pairing

KINGSTON — The New York State United Teachers union has launched a $250,000 statewide campaign that blasts the State Education Department for promoting what's known as "high-stakes testing."

Pauline Liu

KINGSTON — The New York State United Teachers union has launched a $250,000 statewide campaign that blasts the State Education Department for promoting what's known as "high-stakes testing."

On Thursday, the union, which represents 600,000 teachers, began taking out full-page print and online ads with daily newspapers across the state. The teachers are seeking the support of parents as they try to prevent the results of next month's new standardized state tests from being counted toward their new teacher evaluations.

"The State Education Department is not going to listen to the voices of teachers, maybe they'll listen to the voices of parents," said union spokesman Carl Korn. "The State Education Department is acknowledging that scores are going to drop by as much as thirty percent, yet it is insisting that these invalid scores be used for high stakes decisions for students and teachers."

According to union President Richard Iannuzzi, two-thirds of teachers said in a poll their students lacked textbooks aligned to the state's new standards and students will be tested next month on material that has not yet been taught.

The state tests will be given in math and English to students in grades 3-8 in the third and fourth weeks of April. The results are supposed to count toward 20 percent of teachers' "growth scores" on job reviews, unless state officials decide otherwise.

According to Dennis Tompkins, a spokesman for the state Education Department, the teachers were given three years to prepare.

"If we want our children to be ready for college and meaningful careers, we need higher standards — and a way to measure whether those standards are being met — and we need them now."

pliu@th-record.com

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